The present invention relates to a method for producing a feed composition, and more specifically relates to a method for producing a koji feed composition capable of producing a koji feed composition from an oil-treated organic raw material. The present invention further relates to a feed composition produced by this method.
Currently, almost all waste from the food industry and food processing industry is discarded.
This type of waste contains large amounts of organic matter, which would be better reused as a form of recycling. In fact, such waste is sometimes used quite effectively as fertilizer.
However, such waste normally has a high water content, and has the drawbacks of being difficult to store or transport, and easily spoiling. For this reason, this type of waste is often not put to effective use, being left to decompose, or being illegally dumped, which can lead to soil and groundwater contamination or to contamination of river water.
On the other hand, there are methods for using microbes to make fertilizer out of such raw garbage, but such microbes usually cannot function effectively on raw garbage containing large amounts of oils, thus restricting the range of raw garbage capable of being processed.
Additionally, although microbial processing of garbage usually depends on the use of thermophilic bacteria, the use of thermophilic bacteria can reduce the amount of organic matter capable of being effectively used, most of it being converted into carbon dioxide and water and released into the atmosphere.
In Kagoshima prefecture, 200,000 tons of distillatory effluents from shochu are dumped into the ocean each year. While these shochu effluents have a water content of at least 95% and are extremely susceptible to spoilage, they contain beneficial amino acids originating in yeasts, and are expected to be capable of being used effectively in feed compositions. In order to reduce the level of spoilage enough for stable use as a feed composition, the water content must be reduced by drying to 20% or less. However, shochu effluents have a high viscosity, and conventional thermal drying techniques have a very low heat utilization rate of 15% or less, making them difficult to put to any practical use.
On the other hand, the present applicant has developed a technique wherein koji mold is grown in wheat bran and used to decompose cooking oil waste, producing heat of fermentation which can be used to very efficiently dry the shochu effluents.